The Impact of Music Activities in a Multi-Sensory Room for Children with Multiple Disabilities on Developing Positive Emotions: a Case Study

Liza Lee, Tz Yuan Li

Abstract

The idea of a multi-sensory environment (MSE) is not only to provide stimulation for users with disabilities, but also to be calming. Through many studies by the research team, the results had proven the effectiveness of using music activities in multisensory environments for children with various types of disabilities. The purpose of the study was to duplicate the use of the multisensory environment teaching approach with music activities on developing positive emotions and other areas of development for a child with multiple disabilities. A 3 year-old boy with multiple disabilities was selected by purposive sampling to participate in the study. This was a 12-week study, with 50-minute sessions once per week in a group setting. Prior to the formal teaching, 4 observations were taken to determine the participant’s current condition. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to assess the results. The results showed the positive impact of using music activities on increasing positive emotions for the participant in the multisensory environment. Furthermore, the finding for the participant’s communication skills, social interaction with peers and level of intelligence were improved when the research sessions were assessed.

Keywords

Music Activities, Children with Disabilities, Emotions, Multi-sensory Environment

Full Text:

PDF

References

American Music Therapy Association (2014). http://www.musictherapy.org/

American Association of Multi Sensory Environments (2013). http://www.aamse.us/

Boxill, E. H. & Chase, K. M. (2007). Music therapy for developmental disabilities. (2nd ed.), Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed.

Chitsey, A. M., Haight, B. K., & Jones, M. M. (2002, March). Snoelezen: A multisensory environmental intervention. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 28(3), 41-50.

Carter, M. & Stephenson, J. (2012). The use of multi-sensory environments in schoold servicing children with severe disabilities. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 24 (1), pp. 95-109.

Davies, C. (2012). Creating multi-sensory environments: practical ideas for teaching and learning. London: Routledge.

Gaulin, S. J. C. & McBurney, D. (2003). Evolutionary Psychology. Prentice Hall, pp. 121-142.

Hogg, J., Cavet, J., Lambe, L., & Smeddle, M. (2001). The use of “Snoezelen” as multisensory stimulation with people with intellectual disabilities: A review of the research. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 22, 353–372.

IDEA (2004). The Individuals with Disabilities Act. Retrieved March 9, 2004 from Web site: http://www.ideapractices.org.

Kern, P., Wakeford, L., & Aldridge, D. (2007). Improving the performance of a young child with autism during self-care tasks using embedded song interventions: a case study. Music Therapy Perspectives, 25(1), pp. 43-51.

Layman, D. L., Hussey, D. L., Laing, S. J. (2002). Music therapy assessment for severely emotional disturbed children: a pilot study. Journal of Music Therapy, XXXIX(3), 164-187.

Layman D, Hussey D, Laing S (2002), Foster care trends in the United States: ramifications for music therapists. Music Therapy Perspectives 20(1), 38-46.

Lancioni, G. E., Cuvo, A. J., & O’Reilly, M. F. (2002). Snoezelen: An overview of research with people with developmental disabilities and dementia. Disability and Rehabilitation, 24, 175–184.

Pagliano, P. (2008). Multisensory environments and their use in education with children with profound multiple disabilities. The Proceedings of 2nd International Come To Your Senses Conference, 169-176.

Stephenson, J. & Carter, M. (2011). Use of Multisensory Environments in Schools for Students with Severe Disabilities: Perceptions from Schools. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 46(2), 276–290.

Sze, S. (2004). Effects of music therapy on children with disabilities. In S. D. Lipscomb, R. Ashley, R. O. Gjerdingen, & P. Webster (Eds.). The Proceeding of the 8th International Conference on Music Perception & Cognition. Adelaide, Australia: Causal Productions.

Schwartz, E. (2008). Music, therapy, and early childhood: a developmental approach. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.

Whipple, J. (2004). Music in intervention for children and adolescents with autism: Meta-analysis. Journal of Music Therapy, 41(2), pp. 90-106.

Wigram, T., Pederson, I. N., & Bonde, L. O. (2002). A comprehensive guide to music therapy: theory, clinical practice, research and training. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.



Categories: 2016

Tags: , , ,

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: